Through the Hat
by StorybrookeMaine
Summary: Jefferson; Hatter; Traveler. Procuring unique items from across various different worlds. Caught up in a whirlwind of danger... permanently. [pre-Grace Jefferson fic of how, what and why he got to the man we see on TV. Hope you enjoy!]


"Who . . . are . . . you?"

Jefferson paused, looking up to see a huge, freakish caterpillar, complete with a pipe and shaded glasses, looking down over him. The boy frowned up at the beastly creature, as it turned round on miniature legs and went to repeat its question. "Who . . . are . . . you?"

Wincing as the smoke ring the caterpillar had blown his way encircled his face, Jefferson squinted and waved the smoke away with his hand, taking a step back as if studying the monster. "A traveler," he replied vaguely. The Caterpillar seemed to take this as good enough and turned away, retreating to wherever.

Jefferson rocked back and forth on his heels, surveying the area around him. The cobbled path led away from the Looking Glass, through a large meadow with grass as high as his head, into a distant horizon that was currently blocked from view by clouds. Rubbing his neck, Jefferson tried to decide on a plan - the best way to find what he needed.

He'd received his orders from Rumplestiltskin, to get a sample of a special type of food that had the ability to make things both shrink and grow, and bring it back to him. The leather-skinned man then went on to warn him it could be a dangerous journey, but one with a large pay. Stiltskin had then proceeded to continue spinning his straw, turning it into gold - showing just what the journey would be worth.

Jefferson did know that he'd only be paid if he brought the item back, this peculiar, magical food. So it was up to him if he wanted anything in return. It was his first time working with the famed Dark One, and he wanted to impress him. He was famous for a reason . . . Letting him down could cost the young man dearly.

He chewed his lip, thinking it over before starting down the path tentatively. The traveler had been through many worlds before, but he'd often been warned against Wonderland. "How bad can it be?" he muttered to himself, scuffing his toe against the cobbles.

His mind cast back to Rumplestiltksin as he explored, keeping to the path. Yes, he'd learned that straying from a set path could have dramatic consequences. He didn't even want to touch the plants in fear of what they could do.

As he lost himself in contemplation, wondering vaguely why the imp could want this food and what he was going to do with it, he didn't notice someone following him. After a while, as his thoughts began to die out, the pitter-patter of light footfalls behind him became clearer and clearer.

He smirked to himself. Whoever was interested in him obviously had a lot to learn about tracking others without being noticed. He reached for his knife, hand resting warily on the hilt.

_Don't look yet. You might provoke them into a fight._ Jefferson knew he was intelligent, that he should trust himself, but his curiosity was always going to get the better of him. He whirled round, blocking the pathway and pulling out his knife to aim at -

A girl. Blonde, blue-eyed, staring at him innocently. Her dress stopped mid-shin, pale blue with white lace over the top. Her hair was pulled up into a bun, a couple of stray hairs trickling down the side of her face, and her lips were pulled into a faint smile. The smile, however, disappeared quickly as her eyes focused on the knife pointed her way.

"I - hello," she started, a tinkling voice rushed and nervous. "Are . . . Is everything okay?"

He kept the knife raised in her direction. A pretty face and wide eyes could fool some, but Jefferson knew better than to assume her safe. "Everything's fine," he replied, voice low. "Who are you?"

"That all depends on who you are," she said, lifting her chin. Her eyes moved from the blade and locked onto his gaze, and all at once he lowered his arm.

It seemed like not a leaf nor a breeze moved at that point. Everything was silent, still, as the two regarded each other cautiously and Jefferson tried to figure out how to reply to the stranger. "I'm a traveller," he muttered, sticking the knife back in its sheath. "And you?"

"That's not a name," stated the girl, eyebrows raising. "Unless you wish for me to call you Traveller."

"You don't have to call me anything. I won't be here long."

"Fair enough." The girl showed no signs whatsoever of moving, so he turned away to continue his journey. She's not a threat, he thought, starting to walk again. However, the telltale sound of footsteps against the cobblestones gave her away, and he knew she was continuing to follow him.

So he turned around, sighing impatiently. "Why are you following me?" he asked her. The girl shrugged.

"There's not much other choice," she replied simply. "I tend to stick to the path."

Looking around, Jefferson realzsed what she meant. It would be easy to get lost in the fields around them, and the other direction led to the Looking Glass - back to his hat. He did wish it would be more secretive; anyone could walk through at any moment, leaving him trapped in Wonderland forever. But that wouldn't happen - he'd much sooner be trapped in a treasure chest than in a place like Wonderland.

"Just . . . keep out of my way," he grunted.

"You still haven't told me your name," the blonde said, changing the subject. Jefferson sighed again, casting his mind back and trying to think of any false name he'd used in the past. He kept his real name for family - long gone now, of course - and friends. The problem was, now that he came to say a name, any name, he couldn't pick, and he knew if he took too long the girl would know he was lying.

_She'll know I'm lying anyway_, he thought. _That girl looks rather clever no matter what I do_. So he waved his hand and bowed, mockingly gracious, and his upper lip curled into a thin smile. "Call me Hatter."

"Hatter," she repeated quietly, barely making a sound, and her eyebrows shot up even higher. A small smile tainted her features, more her eyes than her lips, and she took a deep breath before returning his gentlemanly behavior with a curtsy. "Call me Alice."

"Is that your real name?" he questioned.

"Actually, yes." She grinned. "Is that yours?"

He chuckled, adjusting his scarf and folding his arms. "That's not important."

"Is it not, Hatter?" Alice walked forward, a friendly bounce in her light steps, and stopped right in front of him.

"You don't look like most people round here, do you? And you're a traveler. You're from another world?"

He looked down at her, straightening his waistcoat and smirking. "Clever one, aren't you?" he asked, stepping back so she wasn't as close. "Also very curious. Your curiosity can be a nice, charming aspect, Alice . . ." He trailed off, glancing at the vast fields of unnaturally high, emerald-green grass that surrounded the path they stood on, before focusing back on her. "But surely Wonderland's too dangerous for that kind of thing. Your questions could get you killed."

"_Could_," she repeated, smirking too. She took another small step forward, her childish mimicking following on when she folded her arms just as he did. "But I remember you _not_ stabbing me with that knife of yours."

"Where are you from, anyway? If I'm not from Wonderland then neither are you - we're both travelers here."

"Then perhaps we shall name ourselves Traveler One and Traveler Two instead of Alice and Hatter. For I'm from a world which, unlike Wonderland, has no name that I know of."

Jefferson frowned. "Every world that I've been to has had a name," he mumbled, "a reference for portal jumpers such as myself. So this world you're from, it obviously doesn't get any."

"You're right." Alice smiled faintly. "I'm from a world, with people like yourself, and there's nothing like this. It's all very dull . . . and there's no magic. No magic means no portal jumpers -"

"And yet you got from there to here," Jefferson finished for her, rubbing his forehead. He'd heard tales of such a place, with no magic, no contact to other worlds. How they operated, he had no idea. He'd been to one like it, the Land Without Color, but that had _science_. Whether this other world had anything at all like that, Jefferson had no idea - he'd never been there.

"It was an accident," Alice explained, "but I'm not complaining. Wonderland's the best thing that's happened to me . . . I've seen so much since being here."

"I've heard it's one of the most dangerous worlds around . . . and I've seen dangerous before." Jefferson turned away from her, blinking as the bright sun glared at him. "You wouldn't happen to know of any nearby villages or sources of information? I'm looking for something."

Alice laughed, moving to stand beside him. "Now that's what I'd call dangerous, insulting me like that," she replied, amused. "What makes you think I'm not a source of information?"

He rounded on her, rolling his eyes. "You're a traveler too. And besides, I'm talking magic. Something _you_ obviously know nothing of." He squinted, searching the cloudy horizon. "Unless you know Wonderland well."

Alice smiled knowingly. "Well," she started, stretching the word out in that funny accent of hers, "nobody else is going to help you, so you might as well keep me."

"Keep you? You aren't a pet." Jefferson laughed a little, running a hand through his hair. "But I'm definitely not keeping you around. You're just a kid, and-"

"_Just a kid_?"

"- and I don't wanna have to be weighed down with the need to take care of you when you undoubtedly get into sticky situations," he finished, hands on his hips. "And I don't appreciate interruption. But yes, you're just a kid. What are you . . . Eleven years old, maybe twelve?"

"Thirteen," she snapped, rolling her eyes. "You can't be far off that."

"Assuming you mean three hundred and sixty-five days a year, twenty-four hours a day, sixty minutes an hour, et cetera, then I'd be . . ." Jefferson paused, considering a moment. "Sixteenish, I think."

"How did you know my world's time?" Alice queried, eyes narorwing.

Jefferson shrugged vaguely, muttering something incoherent about intelligence and continued walking down the path, eyes flitting round the landscape. As they neared a hill, he paused again and turned back to her. "So you . . . you're going to continue following me."

"Just tell me what you need," she said as soon as he finished talking. "I've been in Wonderland for quite some time." She laughed a little. "There is a chance I'll know what you need. Wouldn't that be nice?"

He groaned inwardly at her tone, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Fine," he muttered, and then a little louder, "fine. I was hired to come find a sample of a special kind of food that has the ability to make people grow and shrink."

An uncomfortable silence spread between them as Alice acknowledged what he was saying. "You mean to say," she started, "that you don't know where to find that? That you need . . . help . . ." She trailed off into a burst of giggles, and Jefferson clenched his jaw, irate.

"Are you going to help me or not?!" he shouted, striding up to her and staring down into her wide, blue eyes. He didn't like it when other people knew things he didn't - especially disliked it when they acted so patronizing about it.

"Of c-course," she stuttered, her words dissolving in chuckles every now and then. "It's j-just that, well, you walked past it! You've b-been surrounded by it the whole time!" She stood up straight, wiping a tear from her eye, and gestured round. "The toadstools," she explained. "Magic. You eat, you grow. Or shrink. Still haven't figured out which one's which."

Jefferson's eyes widened in awe as he looked round, spotting the toadstools that lined the path they stood on. Just like the one the Caterpillar had perched on.

"I . . . oh . . . _oh_."

A small laugh bubbled up inside him. How blind did the young man have to be, not to notice that? He grinned at his company, and bowed a little. He even went to tip his hat gratefully before remembering it was currently acting as a portal. "Alice," he said in a deep, humourous voice, "it was a pleasure to make your acquaintance and I thank you dearly for your help."

She laughed girlishly and dropped into another curtsey. "The pleasure's mine, _Hatter_."

He nodded, already straightening and tightening his scarf before strolling over to the nearest toadstool. "So, I just need this?" he asked, motioning to the thing. That would be difficult. It was bigger than he was.

Alice skipped over, skirt billowing out slightly behind her. "Or, you could take a sample." Reaching out, she broke off a chunk of the toadstool, handing it to him. "And if whoever hired you needs more . . . you know where to find it."

Jefferson carefully dropped the sample into a pocket, patting it a couple of times before giving the blonde a winning smile. "I'd best be off, then," he told her. "Places to visit. People to see. Things to find." Turning away, his mind a whirlwind of scattered thoughts, he suddenly stopped.

"Something wrong?" the voice came from behind him.

"You knew it was a one-way path," he said slowly, "and if you've been in Wonderland long enough, you'd know all it led to was the Looking Glass. Why were you here, then?"

He felt Alice's eyes on him, a piercing gaze that caused him inexplicable guilt as he whirled on his heels to face her. She smoothed out her skirt, swallowing uncomfortably, and opened her mouth to talk only to close it again.

"I . . . Um . . . I was going up to the Looking Glass. To see if there really was a portal."

Jefferson frowned automatically. This wasn't the arrogant, irritating little girl he'd seen minutes ago. This was a cry for help. _Well, she can get help somewhere else_, he thought to himself, shifting his heavy coat and chewing on his lip. _Now turn away. Walk away_.

"Why did you need a portal? You said Wonderland was the best thing that had happened to you."_ Oh, bravo. You just had to ask . . ._

Alice's eyes lit up. "You were listening to me?" she asked, hopeful, before sinking back down from her slight tiptoes. "Well, I'll just say that maybe this world isn't as fantastic as I made it sound. Wonderland is a beautiful place, genuinely, but . . . it's all the same. I was hoping I could find another world, a new one. How can I call myself a traveler if all I do is arrive somewhere and stay there?"

A breathy sigh escaped Jefferson as he shook his head a little, his frown fading away. "I'd love to take you with me and everything," he said, slightly guilty, "but my portal - there's a rule. The same amount of people that go through can come back. I was the only person that went through . . ."

". . . So only one can come back," Alice finished when he failed to continue. She nodded slowly, as if processing this, before smiling sadly. "What a shame . . . and I was so hoping you'd take me around." She paused. "I suppose this leaves only one option, then."

"Goodbye?" Jefferson asked, tilting his head. Alice merely laughed.

"No, silly. I meant who can run the fastest."

In the moment it took him to understand what the girl had said, she started to run, up the path in the direction of the Looking Glass. Jefferson's eyes widened as he saw her go, and after a moment proceeded to follow, stumbling after her with his coat flying behind him. "Alice - no - _wait_!"

She ran on ahead, faster up the steep hill and lighter on the cobblestones which he continuously tripped over. She was getting further and further away. _Can't get trapped_, his mind shouted as he raced as fast as he could. _Not here, not like this_. "Alice, wait, come back!"

With a sudden burst of speed, Jefferson ran faster, desperation clawing at him as Alice neared the portal. _She's going to go through, she's going to leave me behind . . ._ He pulled the heavy coat off, dropping it on the ground and leaving it there as he continued running, faster now without the extra weight. Alice was beginning to slow; she wasn't the fittest of girls, he could tell.

As soon as he reached her, he grabbed the end of her floaty skirt and tackled her to the ground. Alice screamed, hitting the ground hard and rolling forward to soften the blow. Jefferson didn't give her time to recover as he pinned her down, breathing heavily, and pulled out his dagger.

She squirmed underneath him as he pressed the edge of the cool blade to her throat. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you," he hissed, "right here, right now."

"P-please," she squeaked, stilling. "I just want t-to . . . wanted to . . . escape!"

"If you hate Wonderland so much, why don't you just _leave_?" There it was again. That inability to just walk away. That need to learn more.

Alice started struggling again, against his weight that held her down, his hands and knees pressing down on her. "I can't!" she gasped, her breaths quickening. "I can't find the portal!"

"What portal?"

"The one I used to get here, idiot!" The insult earned her a small incision on her neck, a warning which sent her into waves of apology.

"Shut up," Jefferson instructed, "and stop struggling." Alice did so obediently and he let go of her, allowing her to scramble gracelessly to her knees and smooth down her crumpled blue skirt. He stood between her and the Looking Glass, knife still pointed in her direction. She wiped the tiny trickle of blood from her neck with her hand, her eyes on the knife.

"You c-can't just leave me here," she moaned, her eyes quickly filling with tears.

_If she thinks crying will help her, she can think again_, he thought. Clearing his throat, he went on to say, "I can, and I will. So long, Ali-"

"What if you brought someone else with you next time and t-took me back with you instead?" Her eager stammering cut through his farewell, and he regarded her pitifully.

"And leave this someone in Wonderland?" he asked. "Like you were going to do with me? No, thanks. You got yourself here - you get yourself out."

And with those words, ignoring Alice's continued pleading, Jefferson whirled dramatically on his heels and patted his waistcoat pocket where the toadstool chunk still remained. Sheathing his knife, the boy took one last look at Wonderland before stepping through the portal.


End file.
